IT Infrastructure Architecture Blog

Sjaak Laan's vision on infrastructure architecture

LEAP: The last Dutch masterclasses

In December, the last LEAP masterclass was held in The Netherlands. See my previous articles here and here. Masterclasses 4 and 5 were about Security and "The Knowledge Worker".

Security

The masterclass about security had a huge amount of preparation documentation, mainly because security has so many aspects. It was not feasible to read it all, but I have kept it as a reference.

Security according to Microsoft started with a memo from Bill Gates, called "Trustworthy Computing". In 2002 it was the start to improve the security of the Microsoft products, and to change the way new applications and systems would be developed. In 2007, this memo was followed by a new one, called "Enabling Secure Anywhere Access in a Connected World". In this memo, the results since 2002 were discussed, and new strategies were set for the forthcoming years.

The .Net framework has improved the way programmers deal with security, because the framework hides much of the security complexity from the programmers.

Security for services in a SOA environment is also a wide topic. The WS-* standards are complex and there are many ways to implement security using these standards.

Security on the infrastructure level is based on 4 pillars:

Identity and access management

Desktop, device and server management

Security in networking

Data protection and recovery

A layered security policy is used to protect the data. The edge of a Microsoft infrastructure can be protected using ISA server or IAG. The network can be protected using IPSec and logical zoning. Identity and access management make sure only authorized people get access to data and applications. For Microsoft, Active Directory is a large supplier of security services.

The Knowledge Worker

This masterclass was a bit less technical than the previous ones. It was about how information workers do their daily tasks and how this could be improved. It discussed the following subjects:

Unified communications and collaboration (how to combine email, instant messaging, work phones, cell phones and other information streams to one unified messaging system).

Enterprise Content Management (how and where to store knowledge and documents)

Next stop will be Redmond, USA. Between 20 and 25 January we will attend 3 days of masterclasses and workshops from Microsoft architects. They will share their vision of the future with the 200 LEAP trainees from Holland and Ireland.

Stay tuned for a article about this trip. The agenda looks good, and so does the hotel.